Australian tourism growing strong

SYDNEY - China remains Australia’s strongest international market with a 16% growth in overall spending, reaching $4.7 billion in the year ending September 2013 and a 30% increase in holiday spend, making this Australia’s most valuable holiday maker market.

“While China is clearly a very important and valuable market overall, and particularly those travelling here on holiday, we are now also seeing significant improvement in our traditional markets with a very healthy growth of holiday spending from the USA,” ATEC Chairman, John King OAM said today.

“Germany, France and the UK have all been driven by leisure sector growth with spending up year –on-year for all markets - showing Australia remains a favoured destination for European travellers.”

“It is particularly pleasing to see sustained growth from the UK over the past quarter, ahead of the expected surge in English cricket fans coming to Australia in the December quarter.”

Mr King said the International Visitor Survey figures, released today, clearly show Australia was a strong holiday destination for both traditional and new markets with leisure sector spending on the increase across much of Southeast Asia and India.

“We have seen a slow recovery out of the UK and US since the Global Financial Crisis and this is a positive sign for the future.

“This is great news for our industry as these are among our most important markets for visitors and spend, and many of our operators across Australia still rely heavily on holiday visitation from these two key markets.

“These figures make it clear that our industry must maintain a good mix of business from both the Eastern and Western markets and reinforces the value of diversity.

“It’s great to see such positive signs for our industry and these outcomes show we are on a strong path for the achievement of the industry’s 2020 extended growth targets.”

Demographer, Bernard Salt, will be speaking at ATEC’s Meeting Place conference at The Star in Sydney where he will discuss the future prospects for Australia’s tourism industry. Click here for more information on the conference program.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews